Division 4 Other public health and disease registers

97   Registers that may be established

(1)  A public health or disease register may be established and maintained under this Part for any of the following purposes:

(a)  to facilitate the care, treatment and the follow up of persons who have diseases or have been exposed to diseases,

(b)  to facilitate the identification of sources of infection and the control of outbreaks of diseases,

(c)  to facilitate the identification and monitoring of risk factors for diseases or conditions that have a substantial adverse impact on the population,

(d)  to facilitate the measurement and monitoring of outcomes of specified population health interventions,

(e)  to facilitate the identification and monitoring of exposure to chemicals or other environmental factors that impact, or may impact, adversely on the health of individuals.

(2)  The Minister may, by order published in the Gazette, specify public health or disease registers, or classes of public health or disease registers, that may be established and maintained under this Division.

(3)  The order may specify the following:

(a)  the information that a specified register may contain,

(b)  the particular objects or purposes of a specified register.

98   Public health and disease registers

(1)  The Director-General may establish and maintain, or arrange for the establishment and maintenance of, a register of a kind specified by an order under this Division.

(2)  The Director-General may enter into an agreement or arrangement with any other person for the establishment or maintenance, or both, of any such register.

(3)  The Director-General may enter into an agreement or arrangement with a local government authority or government or non-government agency, or any other person, for the provision and use of information for the purposes of any such register.

(4)  A public health organisation must, if directed to do so in writing by the Director-General, provide information for the purposes of any such register.

(5)  A register must not contain identifying particulars of a person, except with the consent of the person.

(6)  The Director-General or a person authorised in writing by the Director-General for that purpose may provide personal information about a person to a health records linkage organisation for the purpose of establishing and providing a unique identifier number to be used for the purposes of a register.

(7)  In this section:

health records linkage organisation means a body approved as a health records linkage organisation by the Director-General from time to time for the purposes of this section.

personal information has the same meaning as it has in the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998.